Process for the manufacture of a stuffing material

ABSTRACT

Stuffing material is manufactured from a web of heavily crimped synthetic filaments by passing the web twice through smooth surfaced rollers, the two rollers being driven at different peripheral speeds such that in the two passes opposite sides of the web make contact with the roller having the higher peripheral speed.

United States Patent Bolliand et al.

[54] PROCESS FOR THEMANUFACTURE OF A STUFFING MATERIAL [72] Inventors: Robert Bolliand; Claude Saligny,

both of Lyon, France [73] Assignee: Societe Rhodiaceta, Paris, France [22] Filed: April 28, 1970 [21] App1.No.: 32,778

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data April 28, 1969 France ..6913378 [52] US. Cl. ..'.264/280, 156/161, 156/181, 28/72 R 3,558,393 1/1971 Bolliand et a1 ..156/180 X 51 Oct. 3, 1972 3,017,309 1/1962 Crawford et a1 ..156/161 3,335,042 8/1967 Irwin 156/161 3,523,059 8/1970 Coates ..156/ 181 X 3,586,560 6/1971 Stranch ct al ..156/161 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLlCATIONS 1,540,268 11/1966 France ..156/181 Primary Examiner-Carl D. Quarforth Assistant ExaminerRoger S. Gaither Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [57] ABSTRACT Stuffing material is manufactured from a web of heavily crimped synthetic filaments by passing the web twice through smooth surfaced rollers, the two rollers being driven at different peripheral speeds such that in the two passes opposite sides of the web make contact with the roller having the higher peripheral speed.

6 Claims, No Drawings PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF A STUFFING MATERIAL The present invention relates to the production of a new stuffing material.

The terms stuffing material and padding web are used herein to describe a more or less compressible and slightly elastic textile material which has substantially plane external surfaces and can be used for padding articles such as bed covers, quilts, anoraks, sleeping bags and the like.

Natural materials such as down, feathers or horsehair have been used for a long time as stuffing material. It has also been proposed to use discontinuous crimped synthetic fibers either alone or in mixtures, in flock or web form. Unfortunately, in the long term, and especially after washing, these fibers tend to migrate within the hollow covering and agglomerate in the form of compact balls which cannot be broken up.

Recently, a stuffing material has been described which consists of a heavily crimped web of continuous synthetic filaments arranged essentially in the same direction, in which the crimp is fixedby means of-a resin.

This stuffing material can be made by passing a tow of continuous filaments under tension between two smooth rollers driven at different peripheral speeds, collecting the crimped web thus formed essentially without tension, spraying and depositing a binder onto the crimped web and finally curing the binder.

However, such a crimped material is difficult to use as a padding web for wadding purposes, e.g. for bed covers, quilts, anoraks or sleeping bags, since'it does not have the relatively plane surfaces required for such use.

To overcome thisdisadvantage it has been proposed to produce padding webs which have relatively plane external surfaces by depositing a tow of continuous filaments without tension over the surface of a conveyor belt, and subjecting it to the action of a doctor. blade which travels in the same direction but at a higher speed than the conveyor belt onto which the tow has been deposited, and thereby presses the tow periodically over its entire width and subjects it to local friction. However, such a process requires a rather complex device which is delicate to adjust and yields webs which are still not entirely satisfactory.

According to the present invention there is provided a process for the manufacture of a stuffing material which comprises passing a tow comprising a web of heavily crimped synthetic filaments having at least 6 crimps per centimeter and an elongation above 70 percent twice between smooth surfaced rollers, having a high coefficient of friction and driven in the direction of travel of the tow at different peripheral speeds,while the tow is held under tension, such that in the two passes opposite sides of the web make contact with the roller having the higher peripheralspeed.

The tow is desirably tensioned and opened upstream from the rollers by means of tension devices, lever arrangements, and spreaders as in French Pat. No. 1,540,268. The tension is generally the greater the higher the titre of the treated tow- For example, it has been found that a tension between 0.5 kg. and kg. is perfectly suitable for a tow of 220,000 dtex (200,000

smooth rollers in each pair of generally at least 5/1 and in practice at least 7.5/1.

The spacing of the rollers is preferably adjustable, and the optimum spacing depends firstly on the tow treated, especially on its thickness, and secondly on the thickness of the desired'web. Rollers possessing external surfaces of revolution with rectilinear or curvilinear generatrices can be used.

The surfaces of the smooth rollers are made of a material of a high coefficient of friction, a rubber of 60 Shore hardness being very suitable.

Whilst the two passes between the smooth rollers can be carried out discontinuously, it is obvious that the two treatments can be carried out continuously, for example by passing the web successively through the two pairs of rollers.

A binder may be sprayed onto the surface of the resulting web between or after the two treatments with the smooth rollers. Preferably, the binder is a crosslinkable resin which is cured by a heat treatment.

The stuffing material obtained by this process has substantially plane external surfaces, so that it is very suitable for use as a padding web for wadding purposes in articles such as anoraks, bed covers, quilts and the like.

Before use, the web can be subjected to any conventional treatments such as needle-punching or calendering. A single web is generally used, but several webs can be superposed in the abovementioned treatments can be applied before, during or after assembly them.

The heavily crimped tow used in the process of the invention is an assembly, without twist or significant interlacing, of a large number of continuous filaments possessing more than 6 crimps per centimeter and an elongation above 70 percent, the said crimp being obtainable in practice by forcing the uncrimped tow into a stuffing box in the known way. A crimped tow of any artificial or synthetic material can be used. Advantageously, tows of crimped synthetic filaments such as those based on polyamides, e.g. nylon 6, 6.6, 6.10 or ll, on polyolefines such as polypropylene, or on vinyl I polymers and derivatives thereof are used. Good results denier). The ratio of the peripheral speeds of the have been obtained with tows of polyester filaments such as polyethylene terephthalate or filaments of acrylonitrile polymers.

The invention is illustrated in the following Example.

EXAMPLE A 200 mm. wide web is formed by means of spreaders, tension devices and lever arrangements from a 220,000 dtex (200,000 den.) tow of polyethylene terephthalate filaments of filament titre 5 dtex (4.5 den.) and crimp 8 9 waves per centimeter, and elongation percent. This web is passed under a tension of about 1.5 kg. between two positively driven rubbercoated smooth rollers of diameter 205 mm, and a rubber coating of 60 Shore hardness, spaced 0.15 mm.

apart. The peripheral speed of the upper roller is 15 m/minute and that of the lower roller 1.90 mlminute. The resulting web is collected without tension on a conveyor belt at a speed of 4.50 mlminute. It weighs 250 g/rn, is about 350 mm. wide and 25 mm. thick.

An aqueous dispersion of solids content 40 percent of an unplasticized crosslinkable acrylic resin, containing an anionic surface-active agent, is continuously sprayed as a binder at a rate of g/m of dry material onto the upper face of the web, i.e. the face which has been subjected to the action of the roller with the higher peripheral speed. The web is thereafter dried by heating to 150 C. for 4 minutes so as to crosslink the resin, and is then subjected to a second pass, still under tension, between a second pair of rubber-coated smooth rollers similar to and running at the same peripheral speeds as the first, but arranged so that the face of the web which was in contact with the roller of lower peripheral speed in the first pair is in contact with that having the higher peripheral speed in the second. The web is thereafter collected on a conveyor belt moving at 4.50 m/minute; it weighs 200 g/m and is 420 mm. wide and 25 mm. thick. If desired, a binder can again be sprayed onto the surface of the web in the same manner as before. The web obtained has essentially plane external surfaces and can be used successfully as padding for bed covers, quilts, anoraks or sleeping bags.

We claim:

1. Process for the manufacture of a stuffing material which comprises:

i. Providing a pair of smooth rollers having a high coefficient of friction; ii. Rotating the rollers at different peripheral speeds; iii. Feeding to said rollers under tension a web of heavily crimped synthetic filaments having at least 6 crimps per centimeter and an elongation above percent, formed by opening and spreading a tow;

iv. Removing the sheet so obtained from downstream of said rollers without tension;

v. Again feeding the sheet under tension to a pair of smooth rollers having a high coefficient of friction and rotating at different peripheral speeds, with that side of the web which in step (iii) made contact with the roller rotating at the lower peripheral speed now making contact with the roller rotating at the higher peripheral speed;

vi. Removing the sheet so obtained from downstream of said rollers without tension.

2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is fed under tension successively to separate pairs of rollers, and is removed from each pair without tension.

3. Process according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the peripheral speeds of the two rollers in each of steps (iii) and (v) is at least 5: l.

4. Process according to claim 3 wherein the ratio of the peripheral speeds of the two rollers in each of steps (iii) and (v) is at least 7.5: l.

5. Process according to claim 1 wherein all the processing steps take place continuously.

6. Process according to claim 1 wherein the web is formed from polyester filaments. 

2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is fed under tension successively to separate pairs of rollers, and is removed from each pair without tension.
 3. Process according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the peripheral speeds of the two rollers in each of steps (iii) and (v) is at least 5:1.
 4. Process according to claim 3 wherein the ratio of the peripheral speeds of the two rollers in each of steps (iii) and (v) is at least 7.5:1.
 5. Process according to claim 1 wherein all the processing steps take place continuously.
 6. Process according to claim 1 wherein the web is formed from polyester filaments. 